So on a side note, thanks those who commented on whether I should Haloscan it. As you can see, I'm now trying to set it up. My brain's mushy tonight so it probably won't look right for a little bit.

My friends are moving. It's funny how you have many, many takers when it's summer, and you offer barbeque. But you ask help moving, and everybody's suddenly washing their hair. It's not like this was new...they had the moving date last, oh, August, I believe.

I'm a little slow at the moment, between the last vestiges of the pneumonia and the rest of the junk so while I'm totally with it in spirit, I'm about as useful as tits on a bull. Frustrating as all hell. But I was there today, brought the music (thank you, MP3 player!) and was put to work taping dresser drawers closed. It was fun though...well, as fun as moving can be. We laughed, talked about the good times had in the house. But I am beyond exhausted tonight! Embarrassingly so!

We found our new favourite food....Golden Oreos. No doubt these are old school in the US, but are new to us. It's like the vanilla Girl Guide cookies but now we can have them anytime. And we will! Oh, yes...we will.

Tomorrow, it's the rest of the move. I'm not able to take time off work, not with the upcoming medical fun, so I've knighted my brother and dad to go help out. My friends live at the Canadian/US border. Basically, it's their house, a road, a small ditch and then the other side of the street is the US. I'm sure there's some sort of super-sonic radar somewhere, but from the outsider, it just looks like the other side of the road. Last year, I had to smile at something. There were some little kids...two on the US side and two on the Canadian. They were chucking a ball back and forth over the ditch. Too cute!

Watching all the news reports on the Iraqi election, all I can think of is how much we take for granted our voting. I voted for the first time this year. I was one who truly did take it the right for granted, and used to say that living in democracy allowed me NOT to vote, if I so chose. Yeah, I grew up since then. Anyway, it has struck me these past few days that I can't imagine never knowing what it was like to vote, or even my parents knowing either. Living in a society where it wasn't even possible boggles my mind, and makes me realize that it is just so easy to let it become not a big deal. I watch these people, going to the polls for the first time and looking so incredibly happy. They are smiling. They are wearing their best clothes. In Canada, we had 3 polling stations and the closest one to Vancouver was in Calgary. For those not too sure of geography, it's an hour's flight. When it's time to vote here, we complain if we can't get a parking spot or if we have to take time out of our schedules to detour to a polling station. We don't have to arrange a flight at our own expense just to exercise our right. It's a sort of humbling experience to me, and makes me take a little check into my reality.

So my Mom's not well. I am having a very difficult time dealing with it, and have really only been able to talk to one person about it. Even typing this, I feel like I'm somehow allowing things to become real. She is suspected to have colon cancer. There, I said it. On Tuesday, she will have the colonscopy and the biopsy that's required. I've decided, until we know something concrete, I'm not allowing this to be real. My Mom is the type of mom who won't tell us when she's sick until she's 5 minutes to going to the hospital. It's who she is, and I respect that. So she hasn't told my brothers yet. I have chosen not to either at this point. I'm not sure if I'm helping or hindering but in a few days, it won't matter either way. We will be dealing with things or we'll be moving on. In any case, any positive vibes that could be spared would be greatly appreciated.

And before I forget, Flirt has a great charity thing going on tomorrow. She will be donating $1 to a certain charity for each comment on her blog on January 31. Go ahead, check her out, and leave a little hello. It's a small gesture, but will help many.

I've had a couple questions about eyebrow threading. It's a middle eastern practice (although I think Indian as well?) and it's sort of new around here. Instead of tweezing or waxing, the girl takes a piece of ordinary thread and through sort of quick movements, pulls the hair by twisting the thread around it. I'm not describing it well, but there's a couple articles here and here. It's like a mini-facial too. I'll never go back to any other way now...I'm hooked.

Sue
Vancouver, British Columbia
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A patriotic Canadian full of visions of a better Canada, random thoughts and a lot of hot air. Who am I? A struggling writer and photographer, who looks forward to a better Canada. I read. A lot. I learn. A lot. I push myself. A lot. The world is a small place, and getting smaller every day. I'm proud to have friends in every corner of the earth, and abide by the old adage that there are no strangers, only friends we haven't met yet.